DIAGNOSIS, MANAGEMENT AND OUTCOME OF HEART DISEASE IN SUDANESE PATIENTS

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1 434 E AST AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL September 2007 East African Medical Journal Vol. 84 No. 9 September 2007 DIAGNOSIS, MANAGEMENT AND OUTCOME OF CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE IN SUDANESE PATIENTS K.M.A. Sulafa, FRCPCH, FACC, Department of Paediatric Cardiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum, P.O. Box 102, Khartoum, Sudan and Z. Karani, FCS-SA, MMed, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Sudan Heart Centre, Khartoum, Sudan Request for reprints to: Dr. K.M.A. Sulafa, Department of Paediatric Cardiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum, P.O. Box 102, Khartoum, Sudan DIAGNOSIS, MANAGEMENT AND OUTCOME OF HEART DISEASE IN SUDANESE PATIENTS K.M.A. SULAFA and Z. KARANI ABSTRACT Objectives: To describe the diagnosis, management and outcome of patients with congenital heart disease seen at Sudan Heart Centre. Design: A prospective follow up of all patients diagnosed as congenital heart disease. Setting: Sudan Heart Centre. Subjects: All children and adults with congenital heart disease seen at Sudan Heart Centre by one paediatric cardiologist from July 2004 to June Results: Five hundred and twenty two patients were evaluated, 435 had abnormal hearts. The median age was 48 months (one day to sixty five years). Congenital heart disease constituted 87% and acquired heart disease and rhythm disorders 13%. The frequency of the different cardiac heart disease was described and in general did not differ from that reported in the literature except for Ebstein anomaly which was noted to be four times more frequent than reported. Cardiac catheterisation was done for 81 patients, for diagnosis in 61 (75%) and for intervention in 20 (25%) patients. Balloon dilatation, atrial septostomy septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus closure with the help of a visiting team, the success rate for interventions was 95%. Surgery was done for 125 patients. Seventy three operations were done by the local team and 52 by the visiting team. The 30 day operative mortality was 8.3%. Conclusion: Paediatric cardiac service in Sudan in echocardiography and cardiac catheterisation is growing. Cardiac surgical results are comparable to the literature. INTRODUCTION Sudan Heart Centre (SHC) is a cardiac referral centre established in the year 2000 as one of the first few centres of its kind in Sudan. In the initial period till the year 2001 the service was delivered to children by adult cardiologists. Paediatric cardiology was first started in 2001 by one part-time paediatric cardiologist. A paediatric cardiac surgeon joined the centre in In July 2004 a full-time paediatric cardiologist joined the centre and established the paediatric catheterisation service. The purpose of this study was to review the diagnoses (echocardiographic and cardiac catheterisation), management (medical, catheter based and surgical) and its outcome for children seen at the SHC. MATERIALS AND METHODS All paediatric patients and adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) seen at SHC from July 2004 to June 2005 were included in the study. Patients were evaluated clinically and by echocardiography. Cardiac catheterisation was done when indicated. Echocardiography: A complete 2-dimensional /Doppler echo study was done for each patient using MEGAS (Esaote) machine. A standard

2 September 2007 EAST AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL 435 technique (segmental approach) using the four echo views (subcostal, parasternal long and short and suprasternal) was applied. Sedation with chloral hydrate (50mg/kg/dose) was used in infants who needed detailed initial and/or preoperative studies. A written report with printed pictures was initially used for documentation but recently a digital archiving system was established and patients going for surgery had their echo studies recorded digitally. Cardiac catheterisation: Indications for cardiac catheterisation were: (i) Diagnosis of anatomical lesions not well delineated by echo. (ii) Diagnosis of haemodynamic abnormalities. (iii) Treatment of anomalies amenable to interventional catheterisation. Cardiac catheterisation was done as day case for diagnostic purposes in older children. Infants and children undergoing interventions were admitted overnight for monitoring. General anaesthesia was used for the latter group of patients while for the first group ketamine was used for sedation. Interventional septal defect occlusion was done by a visiting team, while pulmonary valve dilatation, atrial septostomy and patent ductus arteriosus occlusion was done by the local team. Cardiac surgery: Patients selected for surgery were discussed with the cardiac surgeon in a joint meeting. Our policy is to perform definitive intracardic repair of congenital heart defects (where indicated) in patients weighing more than six kilograms; below six kilograms our local surgical team performs palliative procedures and definitive closure of patent ductus arteriosus and coarctation of aorta. Open heart surgery for children weighing below six kilograms and complex repairs were done by a visiting team lead by a paediatric cardiac surgeon. Statistical methods: Patients data were entered into an SPSS computer program and frequency tables were generated. RESULTS In the study period 522 patients were evaluated. The age ranged from one day to 65 years with a median of 48 months. Male to female ratio was 1.3:1. Four hundred and thirty five patients (80%) had abnormal cardiac examination and 87 (20%) were normal. CHD constituted 378 (87%) and acquired heart disease and rhythm disorders 57 (13%). Rheumatic heart disease was diagnosed in 36 patients (8.2%). Diagnosis of congenital heart disease: Table 1 shows the frequency of CHD diagnosed on echo and Table 2 the frequency of acquired heart disease and rhythm disorders. The most common acyanotic anomalies were ventricular septal defect (16.1%), atrioventricular septal defect (8.6%), atrial septal defect (6.2%) and patent ductus arteriosus (4.6%). Tetralogy of Fallot was the most common cyanotic anomaly (17.7%) followed by transposition of great arteries (6.6%) and tricuspid atresia (3.2%). Rhythm disorders included three patients with congenital atrioventricular block and two patients with supraventricular tachycardia. Cardiac catheterisation: A total of 81 cardiac catheterisations were done in the study period. Table 3 shows the indications for cardiac catheterisation and Table 4 the outcome and disposition of patients who underwent catheterisation. Common indications for diagnostic catheterisation were Tetralogy of Fallot to delineate the pulmonary artery anatomy in 16 (23%) patients and large ventricular septal defect to measure pulmonary vascular resistance in 12 (15%) patients. In two patients the cardiac catheterisation diagnosis was different from echo. In the first patient catheterisation corrected the echo diagnosis of total anomalous pulmonary venous return to the diagnosis of transposition of great arteries with normal pulmonary venous return. The second patient had double outlet right ventricle on echo and catheterisation revealed that there was, in addition, severe pulmonary valve stenosis. Twenty patients

3 436 E AST AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL September 2007 Table l Congenital heart disease diagnosed on echo Lesion No. (%) Ventricular septal defect Small 22 Large 46 Atrial septal defect Secundum 24 Sinus venosus 2 Unroofed coronary sinus 1 Patent ductus arteriosus Small 2 Large 18 Atrioventricular septal defect Partial 16 Complete 10 Unbalanced 9 With pulmonary valve stenosis 2 Pulmonary valve stenosis 26 6 Aortic stenosis Valvular 1 Sub-valvular 4 Supra-valvular 1 Coarctation of aorta Anomalous pulmonary venous drainage Ebstein anomaly Tetralogy of Fallot Tetralogy of Fallot with absent pulmonary valve 2 Transposition of great arteries Intact ventricular septum 8 Ventricular septal defect 10 Ventricular septal defect /pulmonary stenosis 11 Corrected transposition of great arteries Tricuspid atresia With ventricular septal defect 3 With ventricular septal defect/ pulmonary valve stenosis 10 With transposition of great arteries 1 Truncus arteriosus Double inlet left ventricle Double outlet right ventricle Subaortic ventricular septal defect 5 Subpulmonary ventricular septal defect 4 Doubly committed ventricular septal defect 2 Non-committed ventricular septal defect 1 Pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect Isometric heart Mitral valve anomalies Total

4 September 2007 EAST AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL 437 Table 2 Acquired heart diseases and rhythm disorders No. (%) Rheumatic heart disease Mitral regurgitation Mitral stenosis Aortic regurgitation Mitral and aortic regurgitation Cardiomyopathy Pulmonary hypertension with no CHD Tumours/miscellaneous Rhythm disorders Total Table 3 Indications for cardiac catheterisation Indication No. (%) Preoperative assessment Postoperative assessment 8 10 Intervention Other 3 4 Total Table 4 Outcome of cardiac catheterisation Outcome measure No. (%) Suitable for corrective surgery Suitable for high risk surgery Suitable for palliation 9 11 Not suitable for surgery 6 7 Successful intervention Unsuccessful intervention For re-do surgery 5 6 Conservative treatment 4 5 Insufficient data Total underwent interventional catheterisation including eleven cases of device occlusion (six patients with patent ductus arteriosus, three with atrial septal defect and two with ventricular septal defects). These device occlusions were done in SHC with the help of a visiting team. Other interventions were pulmonary valve dilatation (n = 6) and balloon atrial septostomy (n = 3). One patient had an unsuccessful trial of balloon dilatation for critical pulmonary valve stenosis. This was a syndromic infant with hypoplastic pulmonary arteries where we could not place the exchange wire in the distal pulmonary

5 438 E AST AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL September 2007 artery branch. Complications of catheterisation included one mortality in a ten year old boy with pulmonary atresia and ventricular septal defect with major aortopulmonary collaterals who had multiple cerebrovascular accidents. His oxygen saturation before the procedure was 40% and he developed cardiac arrest with induction of anaesthesia. Two patients developed respiratory depression needing intubations and two patients had minor bleeding. Outcome: Table 4 shows the outcome of patients who had cardiac catheterisation, Table 5 shows the overall outcome of patients, Table 6, the outcome of patients who had surgery and Table 7, the details of operations done by the local surgical team. Out of one hundred and eighty one patients referred for surgery, only one hundred and twenty four were operated on. Seventy two operations were done by the local team and fifty two by the visiting team. The local surgeons performed fifty eight corrective intracardiac procedures and fourteen closed procedures of which six were palliative. The most common open heart operations were 20 complete repair of Tetralogy of Fallot and 15 ventricular septal defect closure; three of the ventricular septal defect cases had additional procedures: one aortic valve replacement for severe aortic regurgitation, one mitral valve repair for an isolated anterior mitral valve cleft and one relief of pulmonary stenosis in a patient with corrected transposition of great arteries/pulmonary valve stenosis. The median weight was kgs (range = 3 75 kgs) and the median age was eight years (range = years). The total operative mortality was six (8.3%). Of these, five cases were corrective heart procedures: one Tetralogy of Fallot repair, three complex ventricular septal defect closures and one atrioventricular septal defect/pulmonary stenosis repair while one patient had a palliative operation (Modified Blalock-Taussig Shunt). For the visiting team the median age was 19.8 months (range = 1 month 14 years) and the median weight was 7.1 kgs (range = 3 45). The mortality rate was nine (17.3%), seven were open heart procedures and included one transposition of great arteries with abnormal coronary anatomy, two obstructed total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage, one of them was associated with transposition of great arteries, one atrioventricular septal defect with Tetralogy of Fallot, one Tetralogy of Fallot with small pulmonary artery branches, one huge patent ductus arteriosus with pulmonary stenosis in a three kilogram infant, conduit change for a child with repaired truncus arteriosus. The two closed cases included one modified Blalock-Taussig Shunt and one complex Glenn procedure in an infant with isomeric heart. Table 5 Outcome of patients with heart disease Outcome No. (%) Medical treatment Corrective surgery Palliative surgery 28 7 Catheter treatment 19 5 Inoperable Late Complex Elective surgery No treatment needed 29 8 Awaiting surgery Expired Unknown Total

6 September 2007 EAST AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL 439 Table 6 Outcome of surgery for congenital heart disease Surgery No. No. of deaths (%) Mortality Local team Open heart Closed heart Total International team Open heart Closed heart Total Table 7 Operations for congenital heart disease done by the local team Type of Surgery No. Tetralogy of Fallot repair 20 Ventricular septal defect closure 15 Atrioventricular septal defect repair 6 Patent ductus arteriosus closure 7 Modified Blalock-Taussig Shunt 5 Secundum atrial septal defect closure 3 Secundum atrial septal defect /Pulmonary stenosis repair 3 Relief of subaortic aortic stenosis 4 Partial anomalous pulmonary venous drainage (two with sinus 4 venous atrial septal defect) Ascending aorta to pulmonary artery shunt 1 Relief of supra-valvular aortic stenosis 1 Relief of pulmonary stenosis 1 Pulmonary artery band 1 Permanent pacemaker insertion 1 Total 72 DISCUSSION Management of children with heart disease is expensive as it needs specialised personnel and equipment. Working in developing countries where resources are limited and trained personnel scanty is a real challenge. Few studies were published about the incidence of congenital heart disease detected by echocardiography in Sudan. El Hag (1) looked at 179 patients from and found that CHD constituted 56% and rheumatic heart disease 39%. In Sudan, until the year 2001 echocardiography for children used to be done by adult cardiologists which leads to many limitations as the standard echo methodology (segmental approach) and nomenclature for congenital heart disease were usually not applied. During our study period we reviewed 40 echocardiograms for CHD done by adult colleagues and the diagnosis was incorrect in 45%, and incomplete in 30% of patients. Only in 25% the diagnosis was accurate and in all of these patients the diagnosis was either a ventricular or atrial septal defect (unpublished data), findings that are consistent with that of Stanger et al and Ward et al (2,3). In this study we described nineteen echo diagnoses with their subdivisions and their frequencies, many of these lesions had not to our

7 440 E AST AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL September 2007 knowledge been investigated in Sudan. The frequency of most CHD did not differ from that published in the literature. However, for Ebstein anomaly we found a frequency of 2.1%, more than four times the reported frequency of 0.5% in the western literature (4). Rheumatic heart disease continued to be the leading cause of acquired heart disease in our region, a prevalence of 3/1000 was reported in Sudan in 1992 (5). Compared to El Hag (1) who reported a frequency of rheumatic heart disease of 39%, our frequency (8.2%) is much less which might reflect some improvement in socio-economic standards. Of the seven patients with cardiomyopathy, two had non-compaction of the ventricular myocardium; a cardiomyopathy that we recently reported in a large series in Saudi Arabia and we think is largely under-diagnosed (6). Indications for cardiac catheterisation did not differ from literature. Catheterisation corrected echo diagnosis only in two patients indicating the reliability of echo even for complex anomalies. Interventional catheterisation was first started by the adult cardiologist then taken over by the paediatric cardiologist. Visiting teams then helped starting a programme for device closure of atrial and ventricular septal defects and ductus arteriosus. Patent ductus arteriosus and atrial septal defect closure are being done but ventricular septal defect closure is a technically demanding procedure and is not planned at this time by the local team. Although the cost of these devices is high ( US Dollars) it is still comparable to the cost of surgery and non-surgical closure is now requested by many families. Only 69% of patients requiring surgery were operated on indicating a long waiting period which is directly proportional to the socio-economic status of the family. The total cost of surgery (4000 US Dollars) is too high for many families especially those with rheumatic heart disease. Funds had been raised that could mostly pay 50% of the cost. On the other hand 5% of our patients presented when they were already inoperable. This is not unexpected in a country where paediatric cardiac services just started but should alert the general paediatricians about the importance of early diagnosis. The institutional 30 day operative mortality of 8.3% for congenital heart operations is consistent with figures reported by Jenkins and Gauvreau (7) of 2.5% to 11.4% (median, 5.6%) for unadjusted mortality in twenty two large institutions in the United States. The patients who died were all in risk category 2; the risk-adjusted mortality for the latter category was 0% to 8.8% (median, 2.5%) as reported by Jenkens and Gauvreau (7) thus yielding an acceptable mortality for our patients. The visiting team helped to treat many children with small weight and do complex repairs like Rastelli repair, Ross-Kono procedure, arterial and atrial switch operations. In addition there was significant consolidation of the experience of our intensive care staff with management of this group of children. The relatively high mortality of the international team is directly related to the complexity of lesions of the patients who died. These operations were all done during three ten-day visits with the rate of two to three operations per day which added to the postoperative management difficulties. In conclusion, we managed to consolidate the service of paediatric cardiology at the SHC both in echocardiography and cardiac catheterisation. We can confidently perform definitive intracardiac repair of the most common congenital cardiac defects and palliate the more complex congenital cardiac defects in the well selected patients. REFERENCES 1. El Hag A.I. Pattern of congenital heart disease in Sudanese children. East Afr. Med. J. 1994; 71: Arthur Garcon J.R.J., Bricker T., Fisher D.J. and Neish S.R. The science and practice of pediatric cardiology, second edition. Williams and Wilkins Stanger P., Silverman N.H. and Foster E. Diagnostic accuracy of pediatric echocardiograms performed in adult laboratories. Amer. J. Cardiol. 1999; 83: Ward C.J. and Purdie J. Diagnostic accuracy of paediatric echocardiograms interpreted by individuals other than paediatric cardiologists. J. Paediat. Child Hlth. 2001; 7: Ibrahim-Khalil S., Elhag M., Ali E., et al. An epidemiological survey of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease in Sahafa Town, Sudan. J. Epidemiol. Comm. Hlth. 1992; 46: Sulafa K.M.A. and Godman M.J. The variable clinical presentation of, and outcome for, noncompaction of the ventricular myocardium in infants and children, an under-diagnosed cardiomyopathy. Cardiol. Young. 2004; 14: Jenkins K.C. and Gauvreau K. Centre-specific differences in mortality: Preliminary analyses using the Risk Adjustment in Congenital Heart Surgery (RACHS-1) method. J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. 2002; 124: